Úrsula Corberó, from the 'Broken Mirror' of TV3 to Jimmy Fallon's sofa

BarcelonaFor years, Úrsula Corberó's face has not gone unnoticed wherever she goes. Born in Sant Pere de Vilamajor, the daughter of a carpenter father and a saleswoman mother, she admits that she felt an "obsession" with cameras from a very young age. In fact, her career, now of international status, started when she was five years old and began doing commercials. "I remember it was watching Penélope Cruz in Jamón, jamón (1992) when I finally plucked up the courage to tell my mother that I needed to do something," she explained in 2021 to the magazine Vogue.

Like many of the actors and actresses who have found success in Spain and beyond, Corberó's acting beginnings are to be found at TV3. It was on the Catalan public television that she played her first fictional character: at only 10 years old she was chosen to play Maria in Mirall trencat, the adaptation of the novel by Mercè Rodoreda. After that came Ventdelplà and almost immediately the leap to Madrid.

Corberó's professional life is marked by two bursts of fame, one in the Spanish sphere and the other international. In 2008, she joined what would become the great Spanish teen series of the second decade of the 2000s, Física o química. She was there for six seasons and made friendships that she still maintains today, such as Javi Calvo, also currently on the rise internationally thanks to La llegada. In a conversation organized by Vogue, the actor and director praised the confidence of his friend, which was put to the test once the series that made them famous ended. "At the time of Física o química we were inseparable. After that madness, before La casa de papel arrived, there was a period when you worked less. I remember that one day I called you and you told me: «Don't worry, Javi, I know it will go well for me. I'm not scared, I'm not afraid at all»", Calvo recalled, while Corberó admitted that she must have been a little scared.

Whether she was scared or not, Corberó was right: it has gone very well for her. Determined to take on roles that would distance her from a delicate image, La casa de papel and the character of Tokyo crossed her path and the power of Netflix worked its magic. The thriller, which had first aired on Antena 3 with a low profile, exploded on the platform, which distributed it around the world. The actress says she realized she had become a global success during a massive New Year's Eve party in Uruguay. It was there, accompanied by her partner, the Argentine actor Chino Darín, when several people identified her as Tokyo.

La casa de papel has opened the doors to international productions for her and even led her to visit Jimmy Fallon's late show, where she explained that she had met Madonna and that she had confessed to being a fan of her character. Two years later, the queen of pop performed in Barcelona and brought Corberó up to the stage at the Palau Sant Jordi. Despite having Penélope Cruz as a role model, Corberó is not dazzled by Hollywood. "As a little girl, I dreamed of moving to Los Angeles and doing tons of castings, but I think that is no longer necessary [to succeed]," she stated during the premiere of the Argentine film El Jockey, where she showed her most experimental side.

Although she travels all over the world, Corberó remains rooted in her home: this year she became a mother and decided that her child would be born in Barcelona. As Chino Darín explained after the birth, it was important "that she felt she was in her land and that her native language is spoken".